Globally, the emerging concept of e-agriculture incorporates the sophisticated use of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT). This technology empowers different stakeholders involved in the value chain to perform tasks quickly, efficiently, and with greater ease and accuracy.

ICTs can help farmers improve rural livelihoods and the quality of life by making informed decisions. By using ICT tools, farmers can get timely, up-to-date, relevant and accurate technical information and advice regarding good agronomic practices (GAP), ranging from soil testing to post-harvest management techniques to exploit their farming potential. These tools can effectively answer farmers’ abundant information needs. Farmers can locally share relevant information, knowledge and experiences with each other.

Moreover, timely information on weather forecasts would help them prevent crop losses and cope with major crop failures as weather forecasts are more reliable nowadays due to technical sophistication.

Farmers can get information on the location of profitable agri-markets, enquiring about who is paying the highest price and even contact with their potential buyer to sell their produce online. They can also benefit from mobile banking and government credit programs with reduced transaction costs. Apart from this, there are more-specialised applications, esp softwares, for supply chain and financial management that can increase the accuracy of the farm operations.

ICT tools are gaining traction in agriculture due to their affordability, accessibility, and adaptability

The government can effectively monitor its agri-projects in rural areas. Data collection, monitoring and evaluation — a vital part of development work —are faster, time-saving and efficient with ICT-enabled applications. Large amounts of data, like national surveys and research findings, can be stored by governments and made accessible to public. It would not only improve inter-departmental communication and collaboration but also enhance transparency and accountability.

Furthermore, the government can streamline extension services making them more inclusive and effective by increasing adoption of proven innovative technologies. It can also promote sustainable practices, enhancing environmental protection and climate adaptability, as well as build capacity and take feedback of the rural communities, even in remote areas.

ICTs can be effective for policy advocacy as well. The government can make its credit services more efficient, better-understood and transparent.

And last but not the least, ICTs can help bridge communication gap and improve interaction between farmers and agri-scientists to better identify farmers’ specific problems. Researchers can get critical agricultural information like incidence of pests and crop-yields using mobile-based applications. Data collection is faster than traditional methods; more people can be interviewed in less-time using minimum resources.

However to harness the potential of ICTs, especially in a rapidly changing global environment, a number of factors need to be taken into account.

The government must formulate consistent and strong but flexible policy and regulations and provide enabling environment for ICT innovation and service provision. Local governments should ensure the provision of basic ICTs for rural communities within their jurisdiction. The government should also foster public-private partnerships as private sector involvement could enhance access, affordability and adaptability of ICTs for development by offering complementary investments in ICT-infrastructure development. It would also make public services more sustainable.

In addition, mere technology is not enough; government should also invest in capacity development of the end-users to ensure long-term viability of the projects and successful implementation of ICT-in-agriculture applications as lack of literacy and numeracy skills could be a hindrance in the use of ICT-tools. The government should encourage locally appropriate, affordable and sustainable ICT infrastructure, applications and services for rural economy.

Local factors like gender issues, local languages, limited network coverage and low bandwidth must be considered beforehand. Implementation approaches ought to identify the specific needs of the intended users and tradeoffs imposed by resource-constrained environments by working in collaboration with them. The government must ensure that ICT in agriculture interventions are useful and cost-effective for and accessible to small-scale marginalised farmers in remote rural areas who have restricted access to capital, electricity and infrastructure. The information must be tailored specifically to distinct conditions keeping in view the highly localised nature of agriculture.

In closing, although ICT tools are not a panacea to agricultural and rural development, but have the potential to revolutionise the agricultural sector. ICT tools are gaining traction in agriculture due to their affordability, accessibility, and adaptability; however, an appropriate framework of policy and investment is required to harness its potential enhancing rural economy and quality of life.

Muhammad Imran Azeem is a research associate at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia Dr Shoukat Ali is an assistant professor at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, February 9th, 2015

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